Stress can take a toll on mental and physical health. Studies have shown that meditation combats the symptoms of stress and produces surprising results. To start, let's talk about the problem of stress and how meditation helps.

What is the Problem with Corporate Stress?

On the outside, Candice always seems put together, but on the inside, she can feel herself cracking. At work, she strives to appear professional, but with the increase of projects and late work nights, the tension headaches are creeping up more often. The headaches aren't just coming from work. The demands from family and friends also seem to be escalating. Her parents constantly complain that she isn't visiting enough, her best friend is coming to visit for the weekend with her three kids, and Candice promised her neighbor to help paint a fence. Candice knows that she needs a moment to breathe and relax, but there just seems to be no time!

If there’s one word that accurately describes life, it's stress. Stress is the bane of managers, executives, and influencers. Too much stress is debilitating.

"Studies have found many health problems related to stress. Stress seems to worsen or increase the risk of conditions like obesity, heart disease, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, depression, gastrointestinal problems, and asthma."

Leaders can't let stress and its related health problems stop them. This is the main reason why mindful meditation has become so popular.

What Does Meditation do to Help With Stress?

Meditation defined "is a practice of concentrated focus ... in order to increase awareness of the present moment, reduce stress, promote relaxation, and enhance personal ... growth." Meditation is commonly used in the corporate world to calm the mind and reconnect to the physical world. This is important because people spend a lot of their waking life in their own heads.

Harvard University found that "people spend 46.9 percent of their waking hours thinking about something other than what they’re doing." People spend so much time living in their own heads that they neglect their bodies.

Take this for example. How often do people recognize that they've been staring at a computer screen for too long? Or haven't gotten up from their desk enough? Or delayed lunch without realizing it?

It's common for people to live so much in their heads that they don't recognize when they need to eat, slow down, breathe deeply, or take a break. Meditation has proven itself to be the key to help people reconnect to their bodies and de-stress.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) provides evidence that meditation can reduce stress, blood pressure, anxiety, depression, and insomnia. The NIH also explains that meditation can lessen pain and reduce aging. It might sound crazy, but it's not hard to see why meditation helps. Meditation alleviates many of these health issues, in part, because it helps individuals become more aware of their body's needs.

With all these benefits, it's no wonder why executives everywhere are following this new trend.

Changing the World, One Bite at a Time

At Bitesize, we've found that training employees on effective behaviors, like meditation, is an elephant-sized problem. Thankfully, we've innovated a solution to streamline behavior change. To learn more about how we do it, visit our website at www.teambitesize.com.